Luxe Magazine (November)

"Most people see a water stain and wonder how to get rid of it. Artist Maya Freelon Asante spied a stack of tissue papers marked by water in her grandmother's basement and an art form was born. "A dried coffee spill on a napkin that has left a perfect ring; that's beautiful to me," says Asante, who uses high-quality tissue paper - the everyday variety doesn't bleed - to create quilt-like works such as the three story installation that hangs in the United States Embassy in Madagascar. With Asante's enviable gene pool, including Grammy-nominated jazz great Nnenna Freelon and award winning architect Philip Freelon, it is no wonder that creativity runs through her veins. "I grew up enveloped by the arts and discovered both my heritage and my passion at the same time." she says. Asante, whose work can be seen at Morton Fine Art and who counts story quilt painter Faith Ringgold as a mentor, loves pushing the boundaries of materials and using them in new ways. "I often find myself improving with color, light, and shape," she says, "kind of like the way a jazz musician scats on a solo.""
PHOTO BY GREG POWERS